Unsinkable
by Irene Moriarty
Summary: The Titanic never sank. Or did it?


"What do you mean the Titanic never sank?"

"It never did! It's unsinkable – it's in the title and all that," Amy said, leaning against the console next to the Doctor who was staring at her, disbelieving. He was confused. He tucks on his bowtie and with a questionable glare he said, "What?"

"The - Titanic - never - sank," Amy said, drawing out every word.

"The universe is big, strange and unpredictable. Things happen, I tend to forget them happening, sometimes I even want to forget them happening. But... what?" He questioned again. "No matter what happens, this is a fixed point. The unsinkable sank. Did you skip third grade history, Amy? It sank, it will always sink, it has sunk, it is sinking! Wow, Idris was right. Tenses are difficult. Sink, sank, sinking, sunk - where was I? The Titanic sank!"

Amy listened to his argument and rejected it immediately, "It didn't sink, it's a floating museum in the middle of the Atlantic," she said, her tone even.

"No, it's a rusting mess at the _bottom_ of the Atlantic. Oh, wait, things don't rust at the bottom of the ocean, they – what's that word?"

"The point, Doctor."

"Oh, right. The Titanic sank!"

At this point Rory decided that he had two options. He would either stand here and listen to them argue for an infinite amount of time. Or he would put a stop to this rubbish by pointing out the obvious.

"We are in a time machine. You say it sank, you say it didn't, let's find out? Because as far as I know, it didn't sink."

xxx

_WHOOSH WHOOSH~_

The TARDIS materialised between two life boats on the deck of the Titanic. The door creaked open and six sets of eyes peered out.

"Where are we?"

"The Titanic. You ask for the Titanic, I give you the Titanic."

"It's still floating."

"Of course it's still floating, it hasn't sunk yet."

"And it never ever will."

"Yes it –"

"Guys!"

Amy stepped out of the TARDIS, only to be pulled back immediately by her collar.

"Doctor!"

"You can't go around the Titanic looking like that, you're half naked!"

Amy tugged at her skirt and scowled. "And you look like an escaped geology professor; I don't see your point."

"I don't mind Amy being half-naked."

"Shut up, Rory."

"Fine," Amy agreed, reluctantly. "But if I have to wear something ridiculous then so do you. And more ridiculous than-" she gestured to the Doctor's attire "-all _that_."

The Doctor indignantly straightened his bow tie and strutted in the general direction of the closet.

"Amy, hurry up..." Rory said miserably, leaning against the outside of the TARDIS, suited up. The Doctor fidgeted with his bow tie and made cross faces at it. Rory tapped with his fist against the TARDIS door a few more times before the door opened and Amy stepped out; as if she was stepping out of another time - 1912. Amy's eyes were almost as green as her dress, and her temperament almost as red as the curls that softly brushed her porcelain skin. These all-romantic visions of Amelia Pond faded away as she opened her blood coloured lips and exclaimed, "I hate this bloody frock! If this bloody ship doesn't bloody sink I will kick it till it bloody well does!"

The Doctor had finally fixed his bow tie as the cried her last 'bloody'. "Mr Pond, wipe that drool off your face, get your wife and let's go dancing!"

xxx

Amy laughed as Rory spinned her across the dance floor. The Doctor cracked a smile, but was too busy inspecting his surroundings to join them in. He tapped the watch on his wrist and frowned; it wasn't giving him a stable reading. As he looked around the room he saw; pensioners playing checkers, a happy couple kissing, waiters with champagne, a girl on an iPad, a woman feeding a dog out of her plate, men laughing, wait, was that about a girl with an iPad? The Doctor darted over to her.

"This isn't 1912? Where'd you get it?"

"Everyone has one. Give it back!"

"What do you mean everyone has one, this isn't authentic 1912."

"Whatever," the girl said, snatched back her iPad and left.

The Doctor turns around and takes a slow inventory of the room and starts seeing things he can't believe he missed. The outline of a phone in a man's pocket, the Bluetooth headphone on a waitress's ear, the slightly fluorescent lights on the dance floor and a girl in what is unmistakably a denim jean. Definitely not 1912.

"No, no, no, no, no! This is wrong," The Doctor said, tripping over chair and tables as he made his way to the Ponds. This whole place is wrong, this ship is wrong, the technology is wrong, the clothes are wrong, everything is wrong – except me, I'm always right. And I'm right in saying that we have to leave. _Now._"

"It's fine, Doctor," Amy said, recovering from a twirl. "We're in an unsinkable ship; it's been floating here for a hundred years! We're as safe as we can be. What is it? Why do you think we're not?"

"This ship is supposed to be at the bottom of the ocean, not on top of it. Fixed point, Amelia. But right now it's broken."

Amy stood still for a second. The Doctor was serious. She looked around and saw a glimpse of water dripping from the ceiling. She yelped as it caved in and enveloped the room with water.

xxx

"Amy!"

She blinked and immediately she was back in reality. A reality where the room was as dry as a bone. She shook slightly and the Doctor held her at arm's length, hands clapped on her shoulders.

"Amelia, what did you see?" He asked, looking into her eyes, they were still miles away.

"Y-You were right, Doctor. The Titanic sank."

Rory pulled up a chair next to her and held her hand as the Doctor sat her down and started telling them the tale of the sinking of the Titanic.

He told them about the calm waters, the clear open skies, the stars reflecting in the ocean so you couldn't distinguish between the sky and the ocean. A moonless night; no light to reflect from the iceberg that lay in the path of the mighty steamer. The iceberg was spotted by the lookout, just in time to turn the ship so they didn't hit it full on. The turn was made, but not in time. The iceberg scraped six of the boats watertide hulls and the cold, unforgiving water flooded in. And so, the unsinkable ship made it's slow decent down to the ocean floor. Trying to drag the souls onboard with it. Furious attempts were made but mostly in vain. Woman and children were ushered into tiny little boats and sent to row on the vast blackness, watching the mighty ship, first lit up in the dark sky and then later disappeared into the background as the lights flickered off. All was quiet, except for muffled cries and low screams of helplessness as people clinged to pieces of debris floating on the cold, frozen ocean. Some were clinging to their long gone loved ones, frozen to the bone. Most did not survive an hour, and as a single boat came back to rescue those still clinging to life, the clinging losing their grip, it was apparent that all was lost.

"And this, my dear Ponds, is how the Titanic sank. Do you see it now? History has gone wrong. It was a tragedy, it was horrific and no one will ever forget it, but it had to happen. It must happen. I must make it happen."

Amy was the first of the Ponds to speak up, "We have to fix it," she said with a tear but a strong voice.

"What about these people?" Rory asked after a minute of contemplative silence, looking around at the people dancing and laughing and eating around them in the room.

"They have to live," Amy said. "They were never supposed to die. We have to save them."

The Doctor stood up and clapped his hands together. "Right. You two, look after the present. I'll go fix the past."

Amy and Rory shared a smile, clearly a silent message of 'We can do this.'

"Sea creatures! That's what it was! They feed on the iron and their excrement is what creates the illusion of rust. Told you it wasn't rust."

And without another word, the Doctor disappeared into the crowd.


End file.
